Using a generalized Mawhin continuation theorem, we obtain some sufficient conditions which guarantee the existence and uniqueness of periodic solutions for two types of prescribed mean curvature p-Laplacian equations. MSC: 34C57, 58E05.

Background The brown planthopper (BPH) has become the most destructive and a serious threat to the rice production in Asia. Breeding the resistant varieties with improved host resistance is the most effective and ecosystem-friendly strategy of BPH biological management. As host resistance was always broken down by the presence of the upgrading BPH biotype, the more resistant...

A discrete-time logistic model with delay is studied. The existence of a positive periodic solution for a discrete-time logistic model is obtained by a continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory, and a sufficient condition is given to guarantee the global exponential stability of a periodic solution. Finally, an example is given to show the effectiveness of the results in...

This paper presents a low-cost and energy-saving urban mobility monitoring system based on wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The primary components of the proposed sensor unit are a Bluetooth sensor and a Zigbee transceiver. Within the WSN, the Bluetooth sensor captures the MAC addresses of Bluetooth units equipped in mobile devices and car navigation systems. The Zigbee...

Oxidative stress is involved in a variety of diseases. Prospective studies investigating the relationship between oxidative stress biomarkers and the status and development of colorectal cancer (CRC) are scarce; previous studies have failed to establish a relationship between the serum total oxidant/antioxidant status and CRC. Therefore, we compared the total serum oxidant...

By means of the generalized Mawhin’s continuation theorem, we present some sufficient conditions which guarantee the existence of at least one T-periodic solution for a generalized Liénard neutral functional differential system with p-Laplacian.MSC: 34B15, 34L30.

The robustness of large scale critical infrastructures, which can be modeled as complex networks, is of great significance. One of the most important means to enhance robustness is to optimize the allocation of resources. Traditional allocation of resources is mainly based on the topology information, which is neither realistic nor systematic. In this paper, we try to build a...

The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, in which individuals collaborate with their interacted neighbors like bird flocking to search for the optima, has been successfully applied in a wide range of fields pertaining to searching and convergence. Here we employ the scale-free network to represent the inter-individual interactions in the population, named SF-PSO. In...

The goals of this study were to investigate the effects of hypoxia on cochlear hair cell damage, and to explore the role of sirtuin1 in hypoxia-induced hair cell damage. Cochlear organotypic cultures from postnatal day 4 rats were used in this study. Hypoxia was induced by treating cochlear explants with CoCl2. Cochlear cultures were treated with CoCl2 alone or in combination...

The aims of this study were to simultaneously evaluate the expression of Y-box binding protein-1 (YB-1) in non-neoplastic rectal tissue and rectal cancer tissue, and to collect clinical follow-up data for individual patients. Additionally, we aimed to investigate the developmental functions and prognostic value of YB-1 in rectal cancer. We performed immunohistochemical studies to...

Reproductive skew models predict how animal groups containing multiple males maintain stable through partitioning reproduction. However, these models have rarely been tested in vertebrates, especially birds where tests have been made for less than 10 of more than 800 species that regularly exhibit cooperative breeding behavior. In the ground tit Parus humilis, a cooperative group...